Man said to be Zarqawi’s No. 2 killed

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S. and Iraqi forces have shot dead
the second-in-command of al Qaeda in Iraq, dealing what a U.S.
commander called on Tuesday a serious blow to the militant
group at the heart of Iraq’s insurgency.

U.S. and Iraqi forces tracked Abu Azzam, said to be the
right-hand man of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in
Iraq, to a high-rise Baghdad apartment building where he was
shot on Sunday, U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Boylan said.

“We got specific information and intelligence that led us
to him,” Boylan said. “We’ve been tracking him for a while.”

The death suggested progress against the two-year-old
insurgency, particularly as the military said Azzam was behind
a surge in violence in Baghdad since April that has killed and
maimed hundreds. But attacks continued unabated.

In the latest act of violence, a suicide bomber blew
himself up among a crowd of Iraqi police recruits north of
Baghdad, killing at least 10, police said — another in a
series of such bombings in past days.

It is also uncertain how much intelligence Azzam’s killing
will deliver as he died before being questioned. U.S. and Iraqi
forces tried to capture him alive but he shot at them, a
statement said, and when troops returned fire, he was killed.

An Iraqi government spokesman said he was with other men at
the time but it was not clear what happened to the others.

Azzam, believed to be Palestinian, commanded day-to-day
operations in Baghdad and other cities, while financing attacks
and the passage of militants into Iraq from abroad.

“In spring 2005, he assumed the position of Emir of
Baghdad, where he reportedly directed and controlled all
terrorist activity and operations in and around the city,” the
U.S. military said in its statement.

His death follows the capture or killing of several Zarqawi
associates in recent months, including a driver and several
junior commanders, that have led U.S. forces to believe they
may be closing in on the guerrilla chief himself.

However, the U.S. military has moved in on Zarqawi in the
past, only to see him slip away and attacks persist. A bounty
of $25 million has been offered for his death or capture. He is
thought to be hiding out in the Euphrates valley of west Iraq.

A Jordanian, Zarqawi is allied to Osama bin Laden and his
al Qaeda network. His group has claimed many of the deadliest
attacks in Iraq, and has pledged all-out war against Iraq’s
majority Shi’ite population, an effort to provoke civil war and
drive the country further into chaos.

STEP UP IN VIOLENCE

The U.S. military was quick to hail the breakthrough.

“We continue to decimate the leadership of the al Qaeda in
Iraq terrorist network and continue to disrupt their
operations,” said Major General Rick Lynch, chief spokesman for
U.S. forces.

“By taking Abu Azzam off the street, another close
associate of Zarqawi, we have dealt another serious blow to
Zarqawi’s terrorist organization.”

But officials have warned of more violence in the run-up to
a referendum on a new constitution on October 15, when voters
are expected to say “Yes” to a document drawn up by the
Shi’ite- and Kurdish-led government over Sunni Arab objections.
The Sunni Arab minority forms the bulk of the insurgency.

In Baquba, 65 kms (40 miles) north of Baghdad, a suicide
bomber strapped with explosives mingled among a crowd of
hundreds of police recruits in the center of town and blew
himself up, killing at least 10 and wounding 26.

Police said the death toll was expected to rise.

The bomber approached the police station on foot, dressed
in black and making no attempt to conceal his suicide vest,
Specialist Jeff Young of the U.S. military told Reuters.

Young, speaking from the U.S.-Iraqi Joint Coordination
Center in Diyala province, said the police station normally
recruited trainees twice a month. The recruits usually formed a
long queue on a busy road in the town.

Iraqi police and army recruits are a frequent target of
guerrillas determined to destroy U.S. and Iraqi government
attempts to build up security forces to tackle the insurgency.

In other attacks elsewhere, gunmen in Baghdad fired on a
convoy of Iraqi police vehicles taking detainees to Abu Ghraib
prison, killing two and wounding 12, among them police and
detainees, the Interior Ministry said.

Violence has increased in the run-up to the constitution
referendum, which threatens to divide the country along
sectarian lines. Sunni Arabs strongly oppose to many elements
in the document, but Shi’ites and Kurds support it.

Tension is running high since the referendum falls four
days before Saddam is due to be tried for crimes against
humanity in connection with the death of about 150 Shi’ite men
following an assassination attempt in 1982.

(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Mussab al-
Khairalla, Sebastian Alison and Mohammed Ramahi in Baghdad and
Faris al-Mehdawi in Baquba)